What is the kindness of God?

You may say to me, "What is the kindness of God?" We have the very expression used in the New Testament. We are left in no doubt as to what the kindness of God is. In writing to Titus, the apostle Paul says: "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7). Wonderful words! The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man is shown in saving us. I don't deny that God is good, and that He sends His rain on the just and the unjust, and causes His sun to shine on the evil, as well as on the good; but that is only in the way of providence. Where the real kindness and love of God come out, is in the giving of His own blessed Son, and that Son dying on the tree — the just for the unjust. The kindness of God! Do you know it? Have you tasted it? Ah! my friend, are you still a stranger to this kindness of God? What is it? say you. It is the knowledge of salvation, — it is the knowledge of eternal life, — it is the knowledge of God as a Father, — and it is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. It is "The kindness of God our Saviour," — not God our judge. We all thought about God as a judge. There is not one here, if he is honest, but will confess that his primary thought was that, God was a judge. "God our Saviour," I read here. "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done," — that is, your works and mine are set aside, — "but according to his mercy he saved us." Who in this company tonight can really say, I am saved? If you are not, may God help you to believe the Gospel, and see the truth. Then will you be able to say, I know the kindness of God; He has saved me this night by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a remarkable and truly blessed fact that in the Old Testament writings the kindness of God is mentioned in circumstances of failure and departure on the part of God's people. The graciousness of God shines like a brilliant jewel against the dark back-ground of sin. In Nehemiah 9 we hear the lament of the Levites as they recount the absolute failure of the people to respond to the promises and tender care of God. Pride; hardening of the neck; disobedience; no appreciation of what God had manifested amongst them; rebellion with desire to refuse all that God had done in a return to the bondage of Egypt! "But" — says the word — "Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not." In the face of "great provocation" God in His "great kindness" visited them with "manifold mercies;" protection and guidance by night and by day; giving them "His good Spirit to instruct them;" and the manna and the springing well for their sustenance; "so that they lacked nothing." Truly the kindness of God is without compare!

The kindness of God! What a precious theme to engage our hearts in these days of self-assertion and violence! Kindness — the word itself contains the suggestion of "serving usefully." How familiar we are with the "term," found as it is in both Old and New Testaments; but as seeing such an expression intimately linked with the blessed God Himself — One so great and powerful — our hearts are filled with praise and worship. Wondrously indeed has our God shown His kindness in the movements of His most precious love!

Hateful were we, every one of us. Though we were each blind to the hateful features in ourselves we were quite alive to what was hateful in other people, hence the world is full of hatred. Now God looks down upon this scene and there breaks upon the world of hatred the light of His kindness and love. That God should love the unlovable is wonderful: that He should love the positively hateful is more wonderful still! Yet such is the case. The words, "love … toward man" are the translation of the one Greek word, philanthropia. The kindness and philanthropy of our Saviour God have appeared. The word indicates not merely that God loves man as He loves all His creatures but that He has a special affection for man — a specially warm corner in His heart for man, if we may so speak.

To be kind, means to be good and to show goodness to others. It was the ‘kindness and love to man of our Saviour God’ that appeared in the person of Jesus Christ (Titus 3:4). It was the goodness (or, kindness — it is the same word) of God that once led us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). As imitators of God (Eph. 5:1) we should have the same attitude to our brothers and sisters. No matter whether they are in need or not, we should deal with them in a way that aims for their best interests.

(9) His Goodness. Perhaps this should not be differentiated from His love, and yet it is displayed where men have no eye for His love. See Matt. 5:45 "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good." Throughout the Gospels, we have the constant testimony to His goodness, forbearance, longsuffering, etc. These general attributes may be classed under this one head, suggesting His benevolence. As has just been said, this is in close connection with His love. The distinction however can be recognized.

Four qualities of God come before us — love, mercy, kindness and grace (verses 4 and 7). Love is the nature of God, the spring of all His actions, and the source of all our blessings. If God acts according to the love of His heart, the blessing that results can only be measured by His love. The question, then, is not what measure of blessing will meet our needs, but what is the height of blessing that will satisfy the love of God. Grace is love in activity towards unworthy objects, and goes out towards all. Mercy is shown to the individual sinner. Kindness is the bestowal of blessings upon the believer. God acts, then, “because of His great love”, not because of anything that we are. Who can measure His “great love”, and who can measure the blessing that is according to that love?

When David said, "Is there yet any left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake" (2 Sam. 9:1, 3), he was illustrating the kindness that God shows to those who are, by nature, at enmity with Him. The covenant that David had made with Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:14-15) was the reason for his words and action: but guilty sinners had no claim on the kindness of God. In His sovereign love, God has taken up such guilty sinners as Saul of Tarsus, and you and me, and has given us the blessings of sonship and heirship in association with His own Son, to show to the universe what His kindness is.

The kindness of God to His people, the effects of which will be so blessedly and fully manifest in a day to come, may be the portion of the individual believer now. David in the Psalms expresses his own appreciation of this precious feature of God's dealings with him. Reproached, slandered, persecuted and maligned, he can say in Psalm 31, "Blessed be the LORD; for He hath shewed me His marvellous kindness." We, too, as knowing something of the kindness of our God can say with David "O love the LORD, all ye His saints … be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart." The days in which we are found bristle indeed with difficulties and sorrows; the opposition of Satan to the people of God is intense; but we can enter into the joy of heart that must have animated the Psalmist as he concluded each of the 26 verses of Psalm 136, "His loving-kindness endureth for ever" (New Trans.).

In the New Testament Paul uses the expression "the kindness of God" when writing to a company (Ephesus) and to an individual (Titus). In each instance the brilliant rays of this most precious outflowing of the affections of the blessed God shine in their beauty against the dark background of sin and death and the expression of the heart of man. It was "even when we were dead in sins" that the love of God was set upon us. How precious are the expressions used by the Holy Spirit of God to convey to us who "were dead in trespasses and sins," something of the marvellous disposition of our God towards us! "Rich in mercy;" "His great love;" "the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2). In the letter to Titus the same dark background appears — disobedience, malice, envy, hatred! How precious and how fitting that against such an indictment of the human heart the title of "God our Saviour" should appear! "The kindness and love of God our Saviour … through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Great and eternal love finding its expression in the dispensing of mercy to undeserving men. "God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." At what infinite cost has the "kindness of God" reached us!

We live in a world in which philanthropy has some place, but there is a peculiar feature of love which is found only in those who know God. Romans 3:12 says, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." This word "good" is the same word that we have been considering — "kindness." Let us therefore take heed to (set our hearts on) the word of the Apostle "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Peter exhorts — "and to godliness (add) brotherly kindness;" and in Galatians 5 Paul shows us the power we have in the possession of the Spirit of God, the fruit of which is, among other beautiful traits, "kindness" (New Trans.).